Leather-splitting machine.



H. LYON.

LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION HL'ED DEC. 15' 1914.

1,164,829. Patented Dec. 21, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1.

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H. LYON.

LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FlLED DEC. 15, 1914 1,164,829. Patented Dec. 21, 1915..

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

7 c M v f/ fli zeyw fffw COLUMBIA PLANOBRAIH (IO-.WASHINGTON. D c.

H. LYON.

LEATHER SPLITTlNG MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 15, 1914.

Patented Dec, 21, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- K4) 6 Enisgs:

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HARRY LYON, or BeocK'ron, MAss-ecrrUsET'rs; AssIenoR To THOMAS BOSTOGK & sons,

OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A. COPARTNERSHIP rock, GEORGE Bos'rocK, AND JAME's :eosrecn.

comrosnn or THOMAS BOS- LEA TH-umsi mmms MAGHI NE.

Application filed December 15, 1914-. SeriaIN ol 877,309.

ing of the type in which the pieces to be;

split are fed againstthe edge of a splitting knife by means offeed rolls'betw'een'which the leather piecespass and byiwhich the pieces aregripped. I v

The general object of thepresent inv'em tion is to provide a machine of the character indicated adapted to splitleat'her evenly,

whether the piece is wide or narrow, or hard.

or soft; and to secure accurate ui'iiformity of thickness over all parts ofapiece which may vary in width or. in hardness, or in both Width and hardness, at difi'er'ent points.

In order better to explain my object I will mention briefly a. defect. in the operation of,

the common form of splitting machine of the type indicated. Infmachin'es of this I type usually one of the feed rolls is rigidly mounted and the other is yieldingly mounted and pressed toward the rigidly supported roll by means of springs stifi' enough to apply the pressure necessary to forcepast the knife a piece of leather of the maximum width capable of being acted on by the machine. Just as great a pressure is applied by these springs to a' narrow or a soft piece as to a wide or hard piece, wlth the result. that pieces which vary in width, or in, hardness,

' tion in connection with theparticular maor in both width and hardness, are more or less crushed and condensed in the narrower and softer portions in passing be-,

tween the rolls,and are delivered from the machine varying in thickness. This effect occurs because the unit pressure applied by the rolls to the piece varies in inverse proportion to the width of the piece, the'ful'l pressure. of the rolls being concentrated on a narrow portion and distributed over a wide portion; and results in an objectionable'la'ck of uniformity in the thickness of such pieces as pointed shoe soles,fh'eel lifts,

and the like; the narrow ends of the shoe soles anda corner of the heel lift, when the latter is fed into the machine otherwise than Specification of Letters Patent. pa ijgnted D' 21, 1915 i with its breast parallel to the edge of the knife, being more or less crushed. In the case, of pieces varyingin hardness, the pressure applied to the. rolls is as great upon a soft piece as upon a hard piece, with the obvious result of causing the soft piece, or

the soft parts of a 'piecewhich varies in hardness, to be compressed. Accordingly,

for the reasons above noted, leather splitting machines of the sort commonly used.

are incapable of splitting all grades of lea ther, and cut pieces of'all shapes and sizes, with exact uniformity and accuracy.

My invention consists in a means for overcoming the defect above noted in splitting machines of the type indicated, by which the pressure applied to the piece by the feed rolls is controlled and varied by the resistanc'e bythe piece to penetration by the knife, v and therefore to the hardness and width ofthe piece, so that the unit pressure isapproximately the same on wide and narrow pieces or parts of the same piece, and is substantially uniform for soft and hard pieces or parts. In connection with the invention above stated, I provide guides for the feed rolls of the machine which are so inclined to the direction of feeding thatin any adjustmentor' position of either roll, the clearance between the roll and the knife will be the minimum at the edge of the knife, or'in other words that there will be sufiicient clearance between the feed rolls, in any adjustment,

and anypart of the knife to permit the piece operated upon, and the skiving cut from the piece to pass without binding.

. I will explain the principles of the invenchine' in which I have embodied the invention, such machine being illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings,Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine. Fig. 2 is a plan view ofthe machine. Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is an end elevation as seen from the left of Fig.1.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

The framing of the machine comprises a base 10 and two upright side frames 11 and 12, provide bearings for the shafts" and other moving parts of the machine.

I These side-frames are connected together by a tie rod 13 and are rigidly mounted 'onthe base in the manner shown in the drawings or in any other desired way. At thejrear' of the machine frame is a transverse beam 14 which supports-the splitting knife 15, the knife being provided with slots 16 through which pass holding bolts 17, the latter passing also through apart of the beam 14' and having nuts 18 by which the knife may be clamped to the beam. The forwardedge of'the knife is beveledequallyon opposite sides to a cutting edge 19.

Cooperating feed rolls 20 and 21 are.

' mounted above and below the knife edge,

the roll 20 having journals at its ends con tained in. sliding bearings'22 and 23 adapted to slide inguides 24z-and 25 in the frames 11 and 12, respectively, and the roll-2 1-be- "ing similarly mounted in bearing slides 26 lies a hand wheel 34 for manual operation and on which are mounted worms '34? and "12, respectively.

and 27 likewise slidingly mounted upon.

guides 28 and 29 in the side framesl l and 1. The roll 20 issupported against the pres "sure of theleather pieces operated on in a. rigid yetadjustable manner by means of screws and nuts,.each of the bearing slides carrying a screw 30 which is threaded intof a nut 31 rotatably mounted in the adj acent side frame with its axis in the line'ofmovement of theslide. Eachnut carries a worm wheel 32, and the two worm wheels may be adjusted in unison by a shaft 33 which car- 35 meshing with the worm wheels. This mechanism is merely one old form of ad-v justing device, which is not part of my" infvention and which I do not claim. Any

other modeof, adjusting and holding the rigidly supported roll 20 may be employed withoutdeparture from the realsinvention. -The yielding 'roll 21. is supportedbysprings 36', one such spring being mounted under each of the bearing slides and sur- The feed rolls are preferably mounted the springs 36 would be unnecessary. v fact that the, springs apply nopressure to rounding a rod 37 which is mounted in the slide andextends therefrom through a guide 38 in the side frame' The spring abuts against the end of the guide 38. These springs are of just sufficient power to sus-.-

tain the weight {of the roll and its sliding bearings, .butf-not sufiiciently powerful to apply any'apprec'iable pressure to the work.

If the roll and bearing slides had no Weight, 1e

the work is an important point and should be borne in mind in order: that the real i115 vention may be understoodwith their axes parallel to one another and to the. edge of the knife as usual, and adapted to come into contact with one'anotherwith their tangent line asnear as possible to. the edge of the knife. Y

The rolls are driven by the following mechanism. A shaft 39 on which are [mounted the usual fast andloose pulleys 40, 41 turns in hearings in the side frames and carries pinions i2, 43 rigidlyfiired near.

gears M, t5, respectively, which are mounted on studsproj'ecting outwardly from the side frame. Connected with thegearsare wide faced pinions-46, 6&7, respectively, in" mesh with pinions tS, 49,,respectively, on the ends ofthe feed 21701121, or of the shaft on which said ifee'd roll 'is -secured, and these'last named pinions'drive the upper roll through "its opposite ends. *These'pinions mesh with .7 i i a gear train at each end of the machineicon The gear trains between the shaft I '1 both ends thereof. 7

In using the ma'chine,"theleatheripieces f I are fedj between the rolls 20 and 21 from; I

the frontv of the machine, this beingthe right hand side with respect to liigs. 3and 4'. I have provided" guard in front ofthe rolls, such guardfbeing a: plate 52 having a;

slit 53ithrough whichthepieces are passed,

' and provided with lugs 54. at its ends connected withv the adjacent side frames by. pivot pins 55 ,'biit this guardmay be'gomitted without affecting the invention. l Vhenthe' work first passes between-the rolls it is .en-

gaged but not gripped with any appreciable force, because the springs 36 are so readily yielding. a The lower roll yields downwardly by the amount which the thickness of the piece I exceeds the distance betweenthe upper roll and the edge of theknife'this'excess 1 representing the I thickness of' the skiving ioo which is to be split from the piece. The J upper roll, of course, is 'adjusted'to "the thickness whicl is'to be given to the work. When the work encounters the knife and is resisted in its travel thereby, the rotation ofthe upper feed roll is accordingly resisted owing "to its frictional engagement With the work. The powerfor turning this, feed roll is transmitted from the drive shaft through the piniOnsLS and 49 on the'lowerfeed roll,

and any variation int-he resistance to this vjtransmission of motion causes a shifting in position ofthese pinions and of the roll, since the freedom of '-movement of f the sliding bearings for the roll'makes'these pinions practically floatingflpinion s. The direction of rotationof the gear, as indicated by the,"

arrows .inliigsJB and 4, is such that the;

rotative impulse is" applied to'the roll--21" I upwardly, [that is, to ard't he opposed roll.

greases rigidly mounted r011 20 and toward the work, whereby the lower roll is caused to apply an increased pressure to the work.

increases, becomes stationaryv while the resistance continues uniform," and diminishes when the resistance dlminishes.

As the resistance opposed by the knife varies proportionately to the width of the piece and its hardness, it will be seen that the pressure applied by the fioating feed roll varies proportionately to the samecharacteristios of the work. I

It is in this feature of the machine that the main feature of the invention consists, that is, in the provision of a driving train for rotating the feed rolls in which the power for rotating the fixed feed roll is transmitted through a floating feed roll in such a way that'an increase in the resistance to movement of the rotation ofthe fixed roll causes the floating roll to be pressed toward the fixed roll with pressure more or less closely proportional to the resistance of the fixed More broadly stated this feature of the invention consists in the provision of means automatically operative to press one of the feed rolls toward the other with a ance offered by the material to being penetrated by the knife.

In this discussion and in the following claims, where the term fixed. is used in description of the feed roll 20, it is to be understood, of course, that this term is used I in a relative sense and is not intended to imply entire absence of mobility of the roll 20, but simply that it is unyielding relatively to the movable or yielding or floating roll 21.

I wish to state further that I do not limit a this aspect of the invention to a machine constructed and organized in all respects as here illustrated.

Anticipating that the essential principle of the invention embodied in the apparatus here described may be applied in various ways in machines varying widely in appearance and arrangement of parts from this machine, I intend to embrace within the scope of the claims any machine having cooperating rolls, for whatever purpose or-' ganized, of which the function and'mode of.

of the knife which is nearest to any point in the surface of the roll. Thus when either roll is adjusted or displaced so as to leave a wide space between itself and the edge of,

the knife, the distance between the roll and any point on the knife is back from its edge greater than the distance in a straight line perpendicular to the bevel of the knife, from the knife edge to the roll, and thereby many of" these positions sufficient clearance is given to permit free passage of the divided parts of the piece between the rolls and the knife. In machines where the rolls are displaceable perpendicularly to the plane of the knife, and therefore at an acute angle tothe bevel of the knife edge, it happens in some of the roll adjustments that the space between the knife edge and roll is wider than that between some point of the knife back of its-edge and some other point of-the.

roll, wherefore the passage for the leather after leaving the knife edge is restricted and the stock can not be fed freely.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let ters Patent is:

1. A leather splitting machine comprising the combination of a splitting knife, complemental feed rolls adapted to grip between them and feed toward the knife the material to be cut, one of said rolls being relatively fixed and the other being movable toward and away from said fixed roll, and pressure applying means constructed and arranged to force the movable roll toward the fixed roll with a pressure approximately proportional to the resistance of the material to being entered by the knife.

2. The combination of complemental feed rolls adapted to admit and grip between them the material being fed, one of said rolls being relatively fixed and the other being relatively movable toward and away from said fixed roll, a driving shaft and a gear train driven thereby for applying rotating power to the fixed roll, said gear train including a gear connected with the movable roll and another gear meshing therewith and rotating in a direction tending to force the movable roll toward the fixed roll, whereby variation in the resistance to rotation of the fixed roll causes a variation in the force with which the movable roll is pressed toward the fixed roll.

3. In a feed roll mechanism, the combination of cooperating rolls, one of which is movable toward and away from the other, a gear element connected with the movable roll, a driving gear meshing with said element and normally rotating in a direction such as to exert force on said element in a direction toward the fixed roll, and a power transmitting gear train from the movable roll to the fixed roll.

4. The combination in a leather splitting machine of a splitting knife, feed rolls ar-' ranged on opposite sides of the knife, edge,

' one of ,said rolls being relatively unyielding andthe other being, freelymovable to Ward and away from the first IOllyill'ld to freely move toward and away from the fixed feed roll and a driving gear train for rotatingisaid fixed roll, said train including a gear on the movablejroll and ,a'driving '15 gear in meshwith said gear and arranged at one side ofitheplane containing theaxes of the rolls, the said gearv on-the movable rollbeing arrangedto drive said gear train.

signature, in presence of two itnesses.

Witnesses :1

. FRANKBOSYTQCK, I MARGUERITEYO. BYR E,

Copies of this patent may beobtained for-live e ents: each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' a Washington, D. C.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my 20" I F HARRYLYON. 

